AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Danika
It had been more than a year since Alaina disappeared off into the forest, leaving only me and Kaela. Two Stryke sisters versus the world. Against the mighty Vakarrans who ruled over Earth with an iron fist. Who’d stolen away nearly my entire family just because they could. I hated them. Hated the lives we’d been forced to lead, surviving deep in the caves, safe at least, for the time being. I’d do anything to change that and live a real life again.
Kaela had taken command. I hadn’t wanted it. Couldn’t do it.
No one had expected me to either. I was always the wild one, the one who did things without thinking, the one who’d almost gotten her ass caught by the aliens more than once only to be rescued at the last second by her big sister Kira. Our band of human survivors would never have trusted me. Too young. Too foolish, they would say.
Kaela was quiet and demure and, most important, trustworthy and wary of all the dangers our lives entailed.
Not like me. Untamed.
She was off in her gardens, tending to them, picking vegetables and fruit for our dinner tonight. I was walking through the woods, trying to gather my thoughts. Eventually I wandered far enough to find a slow-flowing river, the water clear, the sounds of its trickles calming to me. I sat down and stared at the water for a while, lost in my thoughts.
The sound of a stick breaking behind me made me jump and I whirled around, only to breathe a sigh of relief when I saw who it was. I grinned at first, then frowned, trying to act angry that he had scared me just a little bit.
“Kaze! You shouldn’t go around sneaking up on a girl like that!” I scolded him, trying to match his usual macho tone. He grinned, his eyes darkening dangerously, and my insides twirled with happiness.
“Pretty ladies like you shouldn’t be wandering this deep into the woods all on their own. Could be trouble,” Kaze murmured, making my heart flutter all over the place.
He was human, like me; another refugee just trying to make a life for himself. And although neither of us had made it official by any means, I kind of wanted to make a life with him.
His gray eyes watched me, smoky and stormy, swirling with emotions while he sat down beside me. He took my hand in his and squeezed it gently, smiling down at me. He wasn’t a terribly big guy, but he had a certain roughness and the muscles of a man who worked the land, which I enjoyed looking at from time to time. His dark brown beard was mottled with gray, just like the hair on his head. He was older than me by a good ten or fifteen years, but he’d always been there for me whenever I had needed him. I really liked him for that. Whether I was angry, sad, confused, or happy, he always seemed to know what to do.
For some reason, he seemed to tame my wildness. My need for rebellion. He understood me. My wanderlust, he called it.
“Where do you think this little stream goes?” I whispered aloud, dipping my fingers into the chilly depths.
“I’m not sure. We shouldn’t wander too far from the caves though,” he warned, but even then, his tone didn’t sound all that serious. After a moment, he pointed in the direction the water was flowing. “That way,” he added with a smirk. I rolled my eyes and chuckled.
“Come with me. You’ll keep me safe,” I murmured, watching as a little brown minnow darted between the rocks. All around us, the trees swayed in the wind and I lifted my head, listening to the peaceful sounds of the forest all around us. Birds singing, water trickling, bugs chirping. It made it hard to imagine everything that had gone wrong, just in the past few years. How we would never have a simple life ever again. How I’d probably never see Kira or Alaina again. I felt so lonely, but at least I still had Kaze and Kaela.
Kaze studied me, but I didn’t look at him. He didn’t say anything either, but I saw him reach into the pocket on his belt, pulling out the silver flask I’d once stolen from him when we’d kissed some time ago, back before Alaina had gone out looking for Kira. That kiss was seared into my memory. It had only happened once, but I had never forgotten how his lips felt on mine. How my body had warmed to his touch. The feeling of his fingers traveling down my spine.
He handed the flask to me with a smirk.
“I filled it with some more tequila, since the time you emptied it last,” he admonished, his tone joking as his eyes danced with amusement. I smirked and rolled my eyes.
“Totally worth it,” I joked, sticking my tongue out at him as I took the container in my hands. He laughed at my sassiness.
I opened it and took a big swig. The liquor burned, but in a way that I deeply enjoyed. Standing up, I wandered in the direction that the water flowed, following the path of the river as the sun rose high in the sky. I didn’t have a destination in mind. I just went, enjoying the feeling of being surrounded by nature and with Kaze by my side. I heard him walking behind me and I smiled. I knew he wouldn’t leave me to the dangers of the woods. Always dependable, that Kaze.
We hiked for hours in silence, my thoughts consuming me as we traveled. What would I do now that my older sisters were gone? Should I go looking for them? Should I just move on?
If both Kira and Alaina had gotten caught, what good could I do? I sighed with my sorrow. No, it didn’t matter. I couldn’t help them. Didn’t stop me from missing them though. My fingers clenched at my sides and I struggled to contain my scream of anger and sadness inside me.
It wasn’t fair. Life wasn’t fucking fair.
Humans didn’t deserve this fate. To be captured by aliens on our very own planet, trained for their use and sold off for profit, used to carry Vakarran babies. My emotions battled inside me, a war just begging to be let loose.
“Danika,” Kaze said softly, breaking me out of the beginning of a long line of thoughts that would ultimately lead me into depression. He always knew what I was thinking even before I thought it. He was a good guy. Sometimes I almost didn’t think I deserved him.
